JasonG

Climb: Wedge Mountain-NE Arete Date of Climb: 4/25/2004 Trip Report: Given the perfect forecast, and my fearing the re-instatement of the draft, my wife and I fled to Canada this past weekend to give Wedge a try. We left Mount Vernon about 7am on Saturday and pointed the Civc towards the Great White North. Luckily, we passed across the border without losing our secret stash of dried meat and fruit and sped north towards Whistler. A near diaster was averted in Squamish when we were caught in a mad rush for donuts at Tim Horton's. People were practically running over each other to get into the parking lot. It was truly a crazy, chaotic scene. All we wanted to do was use the bathroom .. . next time I'll just pull off the side of the road. Anyways .. .The road to the TH was hit hard by the October floods and we could only coax the Civic about a km up the road. We left the cars around 11:30 am and began the toil upwards, upwards, upwards. We soon found out that we were out of shape and the trail was steep. All in all it took us a little less than 5 hours to get to the hut . . . we were going slow for sure! The hut was a welcome site and we were greeted by a solo euro named Anton. He promptly packed up his stuff and left the hut to us! There are benefits to being really, really, stinky, I guess. He left to go bivy on the glacier and mentioned he probably wasn't going to climb the next day. Bummer, we would have to break trail all by our lonesomes. The evening was a little on the cloudy side, but the next day dawned clear and calm. We left the hut around 5 am and began the slog upwards. With snowshoes we didn't sink much down low, but gradually the snow got deeper till we were sinking ankle deep or so. Where the glacier steepened, we took off the shoes and started postholing upwards to the low col where we were to gain the NE arete (the full arete looked snowy and time consuming so we opted for just the final steep bit). This took awhile as it was mostly calf to knee deep wind slab. Once we got to the col, the snow firmed a bit on the arete and it was a pretty fast hour up to the summit (around 5 hours from the hut total). The arete was mostly knife edged, but not so much that it made for tough travel. The wind kept pushing us around a bit (and any snow we kicked, goggles would've helped), but not enough to make it scary, only fun. Man, that arete is cool!!!! Worth every bit of slogging to get to it. Due to the cold, and the long walk back, we didn't spend too much time on top. We descended the West ridge gulley, which was straightforward, but steep and wind loaded at the top. It would have been fantastic skiing conditions, but a little questionable on the avy danger side. It is a quick and good way to get down though. From the gulley it was a slow, hot, slog back to the hut, arriving 7.5 hours after we left. We crashed for a few minutes in the sun and tried to get up the motivation to hike down. This took awhile, but eventually we left and arrived at the cars (about 5:30pm) to end a fantastic weekend. The hike down sucked, big time (lots of plunging into tree wells). But the pain was seriously dulled by the fact that we had such beautiful weather and the hut and mountain to ourselves!!! Now we only had one more crux . . . getting past Tim Horton's in one piece. Gear Notes: Two pickets, axes, aluminum crampons, 37m rope. Ski poles and snowshoes were nice on approach and descent. Approach Notes: Snow starts about 1200m

I climbed up and down the SW couloir by myself on Sunday. I'm not a very bold person and I didn't think it was a bad solo trip at all. Crampons and an axe are all that you really need. I used a second tool a bit on the down climb. Beware of other parties above as there is a bit of loose rock high up the gully. Have fun, it is short (<2hrs car to summit) but good!

Just wondering if you could drive all the way to the TH. Of course any info on the approach right now would be great too! Thanks.

Climb: Shuksan-North Face Date of Climb: 4/10/2004 Trip Report: DR, my wife and a friend headed up on Friday to a nice dry bivy on the ridge below the North Face (3 hours from the White Salmon Lodge). Got going by 5am on Sat. and had pretty good, albeit variable, conditions on the face. Some hard crusty cramponing, some ankle deep soft stuff, and some windslab. It took us about 2.5 hours up to the shoulder and another couple of hours to the summit. Great weather, good snow conditions greeted us pretty much the whole day, with an especially fast descent down the White Salmon Glacier. We were back at the cars by 4pm, and drinking beer and eating pizza at the Beer Shrine by 6pm (one of the best parts of the day) A fun, and more moderate than expected route. Good times!!! Gear Notes: Brought a couple pickets, one screw per team (didn't need any of it), 40m 8.5mm ropes, second tool (only used on the summit pyramid). Oh, and lots of Canadian Rye bread (didn't use). Maybe a copy of "The Perfect Storm" (didn't read). Approach Notes: Beware of the deep slop low on the White Salmon!!

If you are a relatively skilled/fit skier and are interested, shoot me a PM. I'm solo right now, and plan on a pretty early start from Mount Vernon (home). Thanks!!

I think we were on the summit between 12:30 and 1:30pm. We made one 50m rappel from the deep notch below the summit. The cornice you rap under is getting HUGE!!

Climb: Chair Peak-North Face Date of Climb: 3/13/2004 Trip Report: Myself, wife, and friend left the cars at ~ 6:20 am under high clouds and booted it up past source lake to the base of the north face. I think it took us around 2 hours, and conditions were excellent for walking (didn't break through). We were the first there and started up the route to find excellent ice (actual water ice) and not so excellent snow. The ice was plastic, thick, and took screws well. The snow was a bit sugary, but wasn't too insecure. In general, the face is looking a little on the thin side (although this was my first time, so I'm not sure what is normal), but still in pretty good shape. We spent about an hour on top enjoying the sun and view and made a speedy return back to alpental once we got past the wallowing above source lake (we didn't bring flotation and it warmed up enough during the day to make things messy down low). Fun times!! Gear Notes: 3 pickets, 5 screws, a few pins, twin 50m ropes, some took two tools, some a tool and an axe. Approach Notes: snow

We left about 4am. Cathedral Gap had almost no snow around it, must have been too windy this winter. Cadaver gap was looking pretty wind-loaded, although we weren't really close enough to tell for sure. We didn't hang around long enough to dig a pit, but in the loaded areas, the (relatively) soft layer was >2' deep (plunging my axe didn't hit anything hard). Wind was really the big factor though . . .

Not bad at all. Mostly cramponing with some infrequent mid shin post-holing. We could have avoided the bit of windslab we encountered, we mainly turned around when we realized our chances of seeing the summit were slim considering the wind/temp combo.

Climb: Mt. Rainier-Gib Ledges Attempt Date of Climb: 2/9/2004 Trip Report: To make a short story shorter, we failed. High winds and some windslab on the Cowlitz meant we only got to around 11,500. It was mainly the wind, however. 40+ mph gusts and ground blizzard conditions don't make it too fun when it is only 10 degrees out. As a side note, most S, SE facing slopes were getting a pretty healthy dose of windloading over the past few days. We saw Gib chute avalanche Sunday evening, and were more than a little worried on Monday considering the wind. We never made it far enough to judge how unstable it really was on Monday. . . . For any interested, there is an RMI group of about 15 spending the week at Muir right now. They plan on trying for the Ingrahm either tomorrow or Thursday I think. Now's your chance to follow the cattle track and avoid the trail breaking sufferfest!!!

My partner and I are heading up Sun/Mon and wouldn't mind another rope team along to help with step-kicking . . . Wtih the forecast, we're probably not the only ones thinking of it . . .

I've heard Lowell refer to it as the Isolation traverse. I think the inspriration traverse is from Eldo out to Primus and Thunder Creek. PM Lowell and he'd probably have any info you'd want . ..

My wife and I climbed both Cook (via Zurbriggen's, descended the Linda) and Aspiring (SW ridge) last year on our honeymoon (late December 2002) and had a great time. We climbed Aspiring as a warm-up and I think It is a good mountain to head to to get a feel for New Zealand climbing. Even that early, the SW ridge was starting to get spicy near the top with a little bit of mixed rock and ice to ~60 degrees. We descended the NW ridge and that seemed to be pretty much a scramble except for some steep snow descending the "ramp". We round tripped it from the French Ridge hut which made for a long day, but oh so beautiful! Mount Cook lived up to it's reputation and scared us a bit. We witnessed a ice chunk the size of a house rip down the Gunbarrels and proceed to plow its way down most of the Linda Glacier. We moved quickly after that! That said, the area is probably one of the more spectacular I've visited and it is worth heading to, even if you only climb Mt. Dixon and/or walk around the Plateau hut. We flew in and didn't regret it (a heli can haul a lot of tasty food!), mainly after hiking out and realizing what slog it would be going UP! The hike out is not for the faint of heart, though. We came very close to getting shoved over a cliff by an avalanche (we left early, but the snow didn't freeze overnight), and large rocks were falling out of the moraine wall and bowling down the exit gully. Needless to say, we realized why most fly in AND out. Still I though it was cool, mainly to get an idea of how huge a mountain Cook really is. I would also reccomend Castle Hill (amazing bouldering/surreal wandering), and second Dru's reccomendation for Mt. Owen. An amazing karst landscape complete with a cool six bunk hut. The east ridge of Taranaki was a fun scramble, as was the MacPherson-Talbot traverse in the Darrans. Pretty much I could spend every winter in New Zealand (This topic took me back mentally). . . but I'd better get back to work!

TimL- Descended it a couple of weeks ago, and it isn't too bad. Mainly scrambling with some steep snow. There will be a couple of tricky crevasse sections, but other than that it'll probably go just fine.

Just got back today from the Pride Gl. route. It goes fine with only one crevasse blocking the entire route, we climbed into it and out via a short 70 degree pitch (most of the glacier is pretty easily navigated). The descent down the NE ridge has a couple of minor problems, but none too bad. I'll leave the rest for you to discover . . . It is a fun route that has the complete Cascades alpine package. Thanks to its omission in Beckey, I doubt you'll see a soul- we didn't. Have fun!

Just wondering if it makes things much harder traversing the opposite direction from the norm. . . . Thanks for any info!

I climbed it this past week and had no problem getting to the ridge. We crossed slabs below the glacier and scrambled up to the notch. The col bivy sites are spacious so I think a megamid would be fine (the spots to pitch it might be a bit bumpy, but PLENTY of room). There is a snow patch at the col that gives a small melt stream on warm afternoons . . . and dries up overnight. Have fun!

Not sure about the SE ridge, but if it is anything like the E ridge the rock might be on the scary loose side. The E ridge was pretty bad (as in rock quality), even by alpine standards . .. .

Thanks Dru! My honda will appreciate a 2WD road. So . . . in your opinion descending the south gullies is better than reversing the route (what the guide reccomends) ??

Just curious if there are decent campsites at the small lake on the way to that ridge route described in Alpine Select (in the Ault creek valley?). We don't have a high clearance vehicle and with the long drive from the states, road walk, etc. are looking to bivy somewhere before the route. Thanks for any info . . .

RobertM- just curious how you would grade the route you guys ended up doing. Recommended??

I usually lose the feeling in my big toes for most of the climbing season. It'll start to come back in the winter, slowly . . . Nothing to worry about.

We came out on 7/19 and had a great time. No problems to report, everything is pretty straightforward. We ended up climbing Formidable, LeConte, Sentinel, Spire Point, and Dome. All had great views, but some were a bit on the loose side (we went up the standard routes on all). Watch out for the marmots at White Rock Lakes, they're fiesty!! We took 7 days total, which was very nice and leisurely. We had enough time for a full day of R&R at WRL and another full day to climb Dome (we spent 4 hours on the summit, lounging in the sun and admiring the view). It was a bit crowded for us (~18 people on the trip between 4 parties), but still lived up to its reputation. Have fun!!

"Ice Cliff Glacier in good shape" - Could you see if the shrund was open leading to the upper couloir?? Thanks

So . . . how long was it taking folks to reach the lake with the boot back in and the road in good walking shape? Not that I'm planning on going or anything . . . Sounds like it is in real bad shape right now